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Freedom of Information
By Subhash, on April 21st, 2010
The setting up of supporttharoor.org is the democratic right of either Sebastian Fuhrmann or his employers, especially if they are sitting in far-off Germany.
It also seems to be fulfilling a need of those who actually think that “an educated, world-renowned, sophisticated and pro-active minister was shown the door for not much fault.” This fact is even recognised by ET, which has been indulging surprisingly in some old-time-journalistic muckraking on the IPL issue and the Shashi Tharoor fiasco.
Two things worth noting from this is the increasing use of the Web as a political campaign tool even in India. The other is the continued dominance of elite voice in this apparent egalitarian new media.
Broadband
By Subhash, on March 10th, 2010
If minister of state for communications and IT, Sachin Pilot, is to be believed, India will be a fully wired country pretty soon. The minister says that the Rs.17,000 crore ($3.5 billion) in the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) will be utilised to connect 626,000 villages. He says that it would entail setting up 11,000 communications towers, and that state-run BSNL will be entrusted with this mammoth task. Sounds good so far.
But with no firm dates announced we have to wait for Pilot’s “news on this very soon.”
Broadcast
By Subhash, on October 31st, 2009
Journalism
By Subhash, on October 13th, 2009
There has been a discernible increase in the number of women journalists especially in English language newsrooms. But it is no surprise that women have not made it to decision-making positions in most news organisations.
This and other concerns of women journalists in South Asia will get a voice with the establishment of SAWM of the South Asian Women in Media. Here’s a report on its first meeting on “Women in Media – Challenges, Opportunities and Partnership”, which was held in Lahore, Pakistan.
Freedom of Information
By Subhash, on September 8th, 2009
The following statement was issued by the South Asia Media Solidarity Network at its meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 6-7.
We, the representatives of journalists’ unions and associations in the South Asian region, meeting on the platform of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN), express our deepest concern over continuing violations of media rights in Sri Lanka, and call on the government of the country to uphold the international human rights covenants it is party to.
We are shocked by the August 31 verdict of the Colombo High Court, sentencing J.S. Tissainayagam, a widely respected journalist and human rights defender, to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment on terrorism charges. We note that world press freedom bodies and the diplomatic community have with virtually one voice condemned the trial and sentencing of this Tamil journalist, whose concerns embraced all causes and all ethnic communities of Sri Lanka.
An already bad situation for journalism in Sri Lanka has turned markedly worse this year, with the daylight murder of Lasantha Wickramatunge, editor of the Sunday Leader, in a busy suburb of Colombo on January 8. Investigations into his murder have made little progress, amid a number of contradictory statements from the government and security agencies.
The month of January saw an arson attack on the facilities of the independent broadcaster Sirasa TV and a knife attack on a newspaper editor and his wife in Colombo. There was in the same month a near-lethal assault on a newspaper editor in the eastern town of Batticaloa and an arson attack on his premises.
In February, Sudar Oli editor N. Vidyatharan was snatched from a family function in a kidnap-style arrest. He was publicly charged with being a “terrorist” by top officials of the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry. Held without charge for three months, he was released unconditionally on court orders.
On June 1, Poddala Jayanta, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association (SLWJA), was seized by what seemed a professional hit squad as he was on his way home in a suburb of Colombo. He was hustled into a van and brutally assaulted, suffering multiple fractures, contusions and other injuries, before being thrown out, unconscious, in an open field. Jayanta had been attacked by name over state-owned print and electronic media over the preceding weeks, for his alleged sympathy for terrorism.
These aside, there have been a number of verbal threats against journalists and media workers by ministers and other senior persons in government.
Several of Sri Lanka’s most well-known journalists have left the country fearing for their lives. We express our solidarity with these journalists and urge the international community to be attentive to their needs for honourable treatment in secure locations, till conditions are appropriate for their safe return to their home country. We believe that this is a responsibility that all countries in South Asia – especially India, the largest country with the longest established democratic traditions – will particularly have to bear.
We request the institutions that employed the exiled journalists to support them to the extent that their capacity permits, and allow them on their return to Sri Lanka to resume their profession without any impediment.
This year has also witnessed an escalating trend of verbal abuse, followed by administrative action against journalists.
On February 1, the Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, issued a warning that foreign media organisations would face “dire consequences” and be “chased out” of the country if they did not behave “responsibly”. He accused three international news organisations in particular of partisan reporting on the situation regarding civilian casualties and suffering in areas of conflict between government forces and Tamil separatist insurgents. Since then, the residence permit of the bureau chief of an international news agency was prematurely terminated, in evident retaliation for a series of reports he had filed on the humanitarian consequences of the war.
Access to the north of the country has been severely curtailed for years and remains so over three-and-a-half months since the war ended, so that the stories that ordinary people have to tell about the last days of the war remain unknown to the world.
We are especially worried at the refusal of the Sri Lankan authorities to allow independent media access to the camps set up in the north of the country for people displaced in the last phases of the war. We remind the Sri Lankan Government that the public in Sri Lanka and elsewhere has the right to be informed, through independent reporting, of the humanitarian consequences of its military operations and the prospects of an estimated 280,000 internally displaced people for resettlement and rehabilitation.
We note with alarm that three journalists from the Sinhala-language weekly Irida Lanka have been detained by the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Sri Lankan police and that official spokespersons are putting out charges of their involvement in an assassination plot.
We urge the Government of Sri Lanka to repeal its Prevention of Terrorism Act, which was introduced, ostensibly as a temporary measure, in 1973. Till necessary legislative changes are made, we demand that all cases registered under the law, which have had a chilling effect on the right to free speech, be kept in abeyance.
We underline our solidarity with the five main bodies of journalists in Sri Lanka: the Free Media Movement (FMM), the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association (SLWJA), the Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Unions (FMETU), the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF) and the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA). These organisations form a coalition that should be strengthened and allowed to operate in an environment free from fear, in the wider cause of press freedom and the public right to know.
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on June 12th, 2009
Media are abuzz with AOL’s latest acquisitions. With this, the story now turns local. I guess that’s what Tim Armstrong will hear from his Indian colleagues next week.
Corporate culture has this uncanny ability to make people think in the general direction the bosses are thinking about. And with Patch and Going in AOL’s kitty, the wind will blow “local” suddenly.
Hmmm, that must have sounded pretty cynical. In fact, I liked Patch. I think if implemented well, and since Armstrong had an interest in it, it could be a unlike other AOL acquisitions. One sad story is Propeller.com. I can’t for the life of me understand why they’re hellbent on destroying it.
Content
By Subhash, on April 11th, 2009
The 21st Century India Through Digital Content conference recently held in Delhi, with topic such as Digital Content in Business, Enterprise and Livelihoods should have been infested with journalists. It wasn’t. Except for a smattering of our ilk, there was not one from the power-list of Indian journalism.
It really should be an area that should interest journalists. Thanks to Osama Manzar of Digital Empowerment Foundation, I was invited. The event, of course, being supported by the Department of Information Technology of the Government of India and the World Summit Awards, was dominated by bureaucrats and ICT activists.
The benefits of digitalization of content and the use of digital media to purvey content are not up for debate.
Critical to taking the front seat in this digital drive is the active involvement of the press. It not only has to convey to citizens the benefits of ICT but also that journalists should get to use digital content as primary sources for storytelling. Now, that looks like a tough one, given the state of the government websites and the closed-door-corp-com driven websites of corporate houses. But we’ll get there, hopefully with governments realising that content professionals can help them with sprucing up their websites.
To start with, the Department of Information Technology could come up with avset of guidelines and must-dos for government websites to implement. Post-implementation it could be closely watched by Chief Information Commissioner of India Wajahat Habibullah’s people.
Of course, rules and oversight by statutory bodies sound good but one really can’t beat an all-pervading culture of information sharing. That is possible when there is a demand for it. And journalists can crank up that demand is they see the benefit having credible information just a click away.
The post-lunch session was on education, a very NGO topic, if I may. There was a lot that was discussed — passionate people with informed views on the matter. But my take on it is that the government should not be offered a “digital” excuse for the shoddy implementation of education for all. It cannot become a crutch for the government or a means for profit-many companies to make hay. A robust primary and secondary education system that covers the entire population of this country is a must – period. It is the duty of the State to ensure that adequate funds and means are made available for this important national need. Which essentially means I didn’t talk at all during this session!
The last session of the day was very interesting. It was on Policy Framework for Governance & Inclusive Development and the sub-session I attend was on Efforts on Inclusive Content Development through Mass Participation: Web 2.0 Technologies & Media. There were some interesting members in this team, like Latif Ladid of IPv6 Forum, Beatriz Elvira Alonso Becerra from Cuba to name a few. This a topic very close to my heart, and, again, I missed journalist at this session.
By constantly returning to these issues, IOJ hopes to be the bridge between journalists and what the WSA and the DEF are doing.
Uncategorized
By Subhash, on March 12th, 2009
There’s this caption for a picture in this New Scientist piece — chilling. DPI is coming to a computer you:
Deep packet inspection makes it possible for your every online move to be tracked without your knowledge.
Tim Berner’s-Lee confirms that DPI is ominous for the Internet.
Business
By Subhash, on December 10th, 2008
This is an interesting story. It doesn’t come as a surprise. After 8 years of Bush’s dirty tricks, what does one expect.
Obama choices for FCC chairman haven’t been very reassuring though.
Internet
By Subhash, on July 17th, 2008
I’ve never got an opportunity to work on GIS but have felt that there are many innovative possibilities for news, even if it is just about interactive maps. Here’s another API to use:
http://blog.programmableweb.com/2008/07/14/new-mapping-api-via-esri-arcgis/
Tags: map, gis, mapping
Internet
By Subhash, on June 2nd, 2008
This report by Lewis Page (Indian gov: Let us into BlackBerry or we’ll shut you down) slips in a contradiction in a rather matter-of-fact. If “Western governments are widely believed to enjoy such access”, then how can the Indian government’s demand “…set a precedent”.
The report ends by saying that negotiations are on.
Tags: RIM, BlackBerry, mobile, Internet
Uncategorized
By Subhash, on June 2nd, 2008
On the face of it, this looks bad. But it needs closer reading to pass judgement. Check it out:
http://www.ap.org/newmodel.pdf
Tags: AP, news, info overload, journalism
Broadcast
By Subhash, on April 10th, 2008
Turner International, a unit of Time Warner Inc, has recently bought a minority stake in the Indian production firm Miditech Pvt Ltd, which makes regional-language general entertainment channels.
Turner operates the Cartoon Network and Pogo channels for kids. CNN-IBN news channel is it’s venture with Global Broadcast News Ltd.
India’s TV industry revenues are forecast to more than double to $11.6 billion over the next four years, making it the most lucrative market in Asia according to research firm Media Partners Asia.
Turner International for more TV channels, animation in India
Tags: broadcasting, media, Turner, Time Warner
Internet
By Subhash, on April 10th, 2008
I get this a lot:
“[T]he younger internet generation in India, people who expect dynamism not just in content.”
Indiatimes wins Abby Silver
A lot of people in important places assume that young Indians are aggressive, lecherous and like muck.
One hopes that the youth of India will rise to the occasion and disprove these more “knowledgeable” kinds occupying important, well-paying jobs that it’s not necessarily the whole truth.
Give em some respect folks…
Tags: internet, india, web
Uncategorized
By Subhash, on April 7th, 2008
Can this steam Apple’s transformation into a media company is to be seen.
MySpace said on Thursday that as part of the deal it would turn its popular MySpace Music site into a joint venture, bringing in Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group as minority owners. The music companies are expected to make their entire digital music catalogs available for listening and downloading on the new site, which will be introduced later this year.
The deal highlights the music companies’ scramble to keep pace as consumers migrate toward the fast-changing market for digital downloads, upending the industry’s traditional approach to marketing and distribution. It is also an attempt to encourage competition to Apple’s iTunes Store, which some music executives have criticized for exercising too much control in pricing and on other business terms.
<<more>>
Tags: music, digital, social networking
Content
By Subhash, on March 28th, 2008
Even the best news sites in India seem woefully “old” when it comes to understanding the needs of their users.
It is not that our brethren in the US are well-versed in the art of communicating.
Here’s a good story from NYT that has pointers to what’s on online: Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On
technorati tags:online, journalism
Business
By Subhash, on February 3rd, 2008
Steve Yelvington’s got it right:
Why does Microsoft want Yahoo, anyway? Here’s why: It’s four o’clock in the afternoon for the Microsoft software empire. At four o’clock there’s plenty of daylight left, but night is on the way. Â
 Read the full post here…
Uncategorized
By Subhash, on February 3rd, 2008
That ain’t no innovative headline, believe me.
It is in fact about RealPlayer. RealPlayer 10.5 to be precise.
According to StopBadware.org, 10.5 “is badware because it fails to accurately and completely disclose the fact that it installs advertising software on the user’s computer.”
What’s also bad, or should we say as worse, is it installs “Rhapsody Player Engine software, and fails to remove this software when RealPlayer is uninstalled.”
Despite this Firefox promotes in as plug-in.
Beware!
Content
By Subhash, on November 20th, 2007
We need to check this one out: Tilefile. First look. Seems to be a cool one. Need to check it out before a verdict.
In passing, I’m sick of subscribing to so many of em.
Tags: web2.0, social networking
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 25th, 2007
I’m finally blogging using a mobile phone.
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on June 21st, 2007
Althougth the Reuters report doesn’t mention India, the PwC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook must have something about the subcontinent.
But the fact that the boom being predicted is based on the increasing use of “high-speed connections and social networking and entertainment sites” should come as an indicator that social networking is here to stay.
We expect that China will accelerate in use of the Internet from where they are today — in sheer numbers (of users) they are incredible,” said Joseph Rizzo, U.S. Advisory Technology Sector Leader for PwC.
Web spending seen rising by double digits to 2011
technorati tags:internet, china, media, PwC, social, networking
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on June 18th, 2007
Thomas K. Thomas’ report on TRAI’s recommendations is alarming, given India’s aim to improve connectivity.
The recommendations, which form the basis for a policy being considered
by the Government, supposedly to improve Internet growth in the
country, propose to completely do away with district-level Internet operators (technically known as category C
licence). TRAI has suggested that all district-level Internet operators
either be asked to migrate to a State-level or a national-level player
by paying a fee or be prepared to shut shop at the end of the duration
of the existing licence period.
Business
By Subhash, on June 14th, 2007
Here’s something that should bring cheer to a very few people in this country:
The state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s subscribers who are doing the talking.
BSNL has the highest minutes of mobile usage across 10 circles,
according to data collected by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India.
<<Read on>>
technorati tags:BSNL, Telecom
Telecom
By Subhash, on June 14th, 2007
After the war between proponents of GSM and CDMA technologies, there’s
a new battle between technologies brewing up in the telecom sector.
<<Read more>>
technorati tags:Wi-Max, GSM, Telecom
Business
By Subhash, on June 12th, 2007
Telecom
By Subhash, on June 12th, 2007
While it is nice to hear that BSNL “appointing a consultant to suggest ways to improve its business processes”, the solution obviously cannot be found in what the familiar suspect — “One of the concerns for BSNL is its huge employee base of over 2.5 lakh.”
It would be better to highlight how consistently issues such as, “its tendering process, which has repeatedly held up its expansion plans,” need to be addressed.
Telecom
By Subhash, on June 12th, 2007
More than 50 per cent of the domestic long distance capacity available
is still lying unused. The situation is worse in the international
segment, where only 15 per cent of the bandwidth capacity is being
currently utilised.
The Hindu Businessline has a report on the situation.
technorati tags:telecom, bandwidth
Business
By Subhash, on February 26th, 2007
Pantaloons becomes title sponsor of Femina Miss India
Pantaloons and BCCL have a new relationsphip now.
technorati tags:ToI, BCCL
Broadband
By Subhash, on February 22nd, 2007
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on December 18th, 2006
This is probably a long shot for us in India but surely an indicator of things to come:
Retired naval officer Joe Sestak out-raised incumbent Republican Curt Weldon to seize a House seat in suburban Philadelphia — aided by nearly $900,000 in Internet contributions. “Netroots” activists helped propel Virginia’s incoming Democratic Sen. Jim Webb in the early days of his race. And in 18 hours, the Internet-based political action committee MoveOn.org Political Action raised $500,000 online to buy airtime for advertising that targeted Republicans in four congressional races.
USATODAY.com
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on November 20th, 2006
Happened across an Online Journalists Association’s site.
It is a neat site. The organisation is headed by a Rajesh Kalra. Googled him but got a whole lot of links. I couldn’t quite figure out which Kalra is the online journalist.
But I’m happy somebody’s finally done it. All the best folks!
Journalism
By Subhash, on October 27th, 2006
Admission to masters degree programme.
Introduction
Journalism is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Developments in technology, politics and society are increasingly putting the media industries and the profession of journalism at the centre of people’s attempt to make sense of what is happening in the world around them. The Erasmus Mundus Masters degree explores the practice and performance of journalism and the media in the context of a new environment brought about by globalization, modernization, commercialisation and professional developments. The scheme offers a unique educational experience. You will study in three European countries. You will be able to specialize in one of three distinct areas of journalism: war and conflict, business and finance and citizenship. You will be part of a group of 40 students selected from a pool of candidates from around the world. You will be part of a network of classmates that draws on a variety of experience and knowledge and meet the global ambitions of the degree. The Erasmus Mundus program in Journalism and Media seeks to produce alumni who will shape the future of global journalism.
The degree scheme brings together five leading European institutions in the journalism and media education, combining the best academic research and teaching from the different national educational cultures. The program aims to prepare students for the challenge of working in the new global information society. Globalization is penetrating cultural and social borders around the world and simultaneously reinvigorating smaller regions and feelings of local identity. Political and social power is taking on new dimensions. Cultural awareness and misunderstanding are growing. Journalism is at the centre of these changes.
- Politically, states in Europe are coming together and falling apart at the same time. Journalists need new tools to understand and to interpret the processes of integration and disintegration.
- Economically, a global world market is creating growth and havoc at the same time. Journalists need tools to be able to describe it in clear language.
- Socially, people are getting connected in new ways through modern technologies. Journalism is the crucial field in a network society.
- Culturally, there is increasing onus on the media and journalism to explain differences and similarities between peoples and societies.
The focus of the Erasmus Mundus Masters in Journalism and Media is to give participants the intellectual tools for a new and better understanding of reporting the global challenge.
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on October 18th, 2006
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on October 18th, 2006
Broadband Grew 33 Percent Years’ Time
This is a OECD report. Nevertheless, this reflects the trend.
technorati tags:broadband, internet, DSL, OECD
Uncategorized
By Subhash, on October 14th, 2006
Media most trusted institution: Survey
Indian’s never cease to surprise! Isn’t it?
technorati tags:media, credibility, newspapers
Business
By Subhash, on October 14th, 2006
Rural India is no more back of beyond. There’s a brand new fortnightly magazine Grameen Today that will focus on providing “a comprehensive knowledge of
technologies, scientific knowledge and various policy issues that are
of interest to the rural population.”
technorati tags:media, magazine, rural, india, news
Business
By Subhash, on October 14th, 2006
It is uncommon to hear of journalists involving themselves in helping out the management about the future of a newspaper. I’ve heard only of ownership of newspapers by journalists’ collectives and so on. Here’s a new one: The Los Angeles Times “is dedicating three investigative reporters and half a dozen editors to find ideas, at home and abroad, for re-engaging the reader, both in print and online.”
The full story is at :
A Newspaper Investigates Its Future
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on October 11th, 2006
A special edition of The World Debate, one of the BBC’s flagship programmes, will be filmed on Thursday October 26 at the World Congress on Communication for Development in Rome, Italy. Entitled “Is a free media essential for development?” it will be broadcast on BBC World on 28-29 October, as well as made available online.
Transmission Times
“The World Debate: Is a Free Media Essential For Development?” will be broadcast at the following time on BBC World (all times GMT):
Saturday 28 October: 12.10 p.m. / 7.10 p.m.
Sunday 29 October: 1.10 a.m. / 8.10 a.m. / 5.10 p.m.
For more details visit: http://www.devcomm.org/worldbank/public.asp?idmacro=9&idmicro=21
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 27th, 2006
PIB commences webstreaming, to upload rare photographs on its website
This news could ordinarily be considered mundane stuff. But wait a minute, don’t you sense that this gives you a feeling that the Web is becoming inevitable? Somehow this news made me feel so.
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 12th, 2006
Trai order on termination charges for roaming calls
TRAI insists that operators stick to the Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC) regulation. October 11 is the deadline for compliance.
technorati tags:telecom, trai, mobiles, cell, regulations
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 12th, 2006
ET: Microsoft unveils updated search engine
Windows Live Search
engine for all but Windows Live Local Search and mapping service only in the United States and
Britain.
technorati tags:search, microsoft, google
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 9th, 2006
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 8th, 2006
Pro-Israel lobby targets BBC online poll
‘Megaphone’ lobbyware mobilisation
BBC History Magazine was forced to remove an online poll after it was targeted by a project aimed at influencing internet opinion in Israel’s favour.…
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 8th, 2006
One has to rue the woefully inadequate debate on media policy in India. There aught to be serious effort at organise public opinion on issue such as the Broadcast Bill. Statements have been made that all “stakeholders” will be consulted. But the public doesn’t seem to figure in the list.
Here’s a link to a good document on media regulation in the U.S. We can take a few cues from there.
Policy Principles for Media Regulation
Policymakers should consider regulation’s effect on consumers, innovation and free expression when proposing restrictions and regulations on media platforms, says a new paper by the Progress and Freedom Foundation.
technorati tags:media, policy, broadcast
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 8th, 2006
Star, Nimbus ink sporty deal
To launch cricket-centric sports channel, NEO Sports, by year end.
It make big news when Nimbus got the cricket telecast rights. Next , Murdoch buying a stake in Nimbus was hot too. But Nimbus joining Star to launch a cricket-centric channel. Man, that’s boring.
technorati tags:cricket, broadcast, nimbus, star, murdoch, television, sports
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 8th, 2006
Reliance shelves foray into TV news
The Reliance group has junked its plans to get into television news business.
This Business Standard report did surprise me. Reliance thinking about getting into the news business? Well media policy will come of age soon. It should, PLEASE.
technorati tags:television, reliance, ambanis, media, policy, ownership
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 8th, 2006
Business Line : Desktop sales may cross 56 lakh units: MAIT
Desktop sales in fiscal 2006-07 are expected to cross 56 lakh units, according to a report by Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), an industry body. Desktops and laptops taken together crossed 12 lakh units for the quarter April-June of FY2006-07.
But another important point is:
Notebook sales touched 1.8 lakh units recording 125 per cent year-on-year growth and 18 per cent sequential growth. Server consumption is expected to accelerate in the future, with increased investments in corporates, especially manufacturing and retail.
Business
By Subhash, on September 8th, 2006
I don’t quite get what this is all about. A 60 per cent stake? Something to keep an eye on…
Essel may take 60% stake in UNI
Media West, an investment company promoted by Subhash Chandra’s Essel Group is close to picking up about 60 per cent stake in the news agency United News of India (UNI) for an undisclosed amount.
technorati tags:UNI, news, agency, zee, newspaper, DNA
Blogging & RSS
By Subhash, on September 2nd, 2006
Five years after the first internet bubble burst, we’re now witnessing the backlash against Web 2.0 and a plethora of me-too business plans, marketing pitches and analyst reports exploiting the nebulous phrase.
Berners-Lee calls for Web 2.0 calm | The Register
technorati tags:internet, technology, bubble, web2.0
Business
By Subhash, on September 2nd, 2006
Clickz.com has a report on the “Top 15 Online Populations and Web Properties Worldwide”, and for a change India is listed. For a worldwide population of unique online visitors at 713 million India with 1.8 million comes a lowly ninth yet is there.
The point that needs mention here is that “visitors exclude traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes and access from mobile phones or PDAs”. India has a significant number of users surfing the Net from cybercafes, as the recent NRS data shows. The figure could be much higher if that’s taken into account.
Freedom of Information
By Subhash, on September 2nd, 2006
Increasingly new media companies have to confront this:
“A Brazilian judge has ordered the local office of Web search company Google to disclose the data of users of Google’s social networking site Orkut accused of crimes like racism or child pornography.”
The choice is not so easy but the issues at stake are.
Internet
By Subhash, on September 1st, 2006
Tanuja Chandra’s Hope, and a Little Sugar is a thoroughbred Net flick. It “has been produced almost entirely on the internet, from location hunting to costumes and script changes.” So it qualifies as India`s first web film to hit screens.
technorati tags:cinema, movies, internet
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on September 1st, 2006
In an experiment in collaborative journalism, Wired News has set up a wiki. Wired’s got a Ryan Singel to get things going.
technorati tags:wiki, online, journalism
Technology
By Subhash, on September 1st, 2006
The Indian Express reports that our own Election Commission is going to go with openoffice. That’s goods news. Let’s hope the trend continues and more and more organisations in India go in for open source software.
EC opens window to free softwareÂ
Broadcast
By Subhash, on September 1st, 2006
The Hindu reports that: “Nearly 10 days after the Bombay High Court passed an order banning adult content on movie channels, cable operators here continue to block out nine movie channels. The stand off is a result of the confusion that has arisen following the Court’s ruling in a public interest litigation.”
“Adult content” in India can just be the film songs that are broadcast all day by all channels, to start with. But this puritanical indigestion has to be stopped. It is all the more surprising that the secular parties are indulging in such gimmickry.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on September 1st, 2006
TRAI fixes Rs.5 a month for pay channels
Broadcasters have to offer pay channels on an a la carte basis — stupendous
Maximum price of FTA for 30 channels fixed at Rs. 77 plus taxes — not new
Two compulsory schemes for set-top boxes also announced — good
But the broadcaster are set to go to court.
This is again a case where policy and people find themselves at a huge distance from each other. The proposal this time is for the consumer. It needn’t be so every time.
BS: CAS prices head for tribunal, Bills in CAS areas may see 40% drop
ET: Trai ruling likely to affect cable TV’s rural reach
technorati tags:CAS, TRAI, broadcast, policy
Business
By Subhash, on August 30th, 2006
The Audit Bureau of Circulations, which has 411 publishers of national and regional importance, 151 advertising agencies, 51 advertisers and 20 new agencies and associations connected with print media and advertising as its members released the National Readership Survey (NRS).
The news to ponder over is: “The Internet as a medium seems to have paused on its growth trajectory.” Cause for concern? Not really. Read on.
Although urban India has shown a faster growth — from 2.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent, a 1.2 per cent of the country’s population 12 years and above log on to the Net every week. In actual numbers, it now stands at 9.4 million from 7.2 million last year.
According to the NRS:”The number of individuals who accessed the Internet in the last 3 months increased marginally from 10.8 mn to 13.0 mn in 2006.” Of the 13 m, 10.8 m user are in urban India, nearly 1.8 m users are in rural India — a huge potential for cyber cafes in rural India? But the number of users in rural India has stagnated, the NRS has found. But cyber cafes, with 34 per cent of users surfing from them, 30 per cent from home and 20 per cent from office, is the main source of access for people.
The medium to watch though is mobile phone. It reaches 22 m users. Although usage is higher among young urban audiences and 44 per cent of the 22 m reside in 42 metros, with value-added features such as downloads, accessing news and cricket scores and SMS attracting 38 per cent of the users. The availability of local content surely has a role to play here. With 3G the medium can only get hotter.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on August 28th, 2006
The Hindu reports: “Radio panchayat”, a new programme that will broadcast the progress of development projects taken up in gram panchayats, was launched at Maragodu village in Madikeri taluk in Kodagu.
Every Tuesday and Thursday from 6.30 p.m. to 7.50 p.m. people can call up and seek clarifications from panchayat representatives and officials. Ahllo, Ahllo, who’s running the show? I couldn’t gather that from the news report.
Business
By Subhash, on August 26th, 2006
Television Eighteen India Ltd is emerging as a serious player in the Indian internet space. This “new” media group has its internet properties under Web18. Exchange4media reports that Web18 has acquired Cricketnext.com and Compareindia.com. The group boast of news website such as IBNLive.com, which should make it a serious contender as a vertical portal what with Moneycontrol.com being part of the group and having “a significant stake in Yatra.com and Jobstreet.comâ€.
Business
By Subhash, on August 23rd, 2006
It was a pleasant surprise to happen upon a newsletter on the Indian media by Chronosphere’s CEO Bhupesh Trivedi “personally”. Trivedi’s been bringing it out since May 2004, all the more surprising that I found out only now.
The newsletter’s available at http://www.chronosphere.biz/IMO/.
ICTs
By Subhash, on August 22nd, 2006
The eradication of disease, malnutrition, pollution, and illiteracy — real concern in much of the world, including the “developed” one, can be achieved by using appropriate technology. The Stanford Social Innovation Review list 10 such technology that can make a difference in the qualities of life of the majority of the people of the world. Here’s the list drawn up by John Voelcker:
Treating Human Waste:
A South African company offers a self-contained toilet that treats waste without water or chemicals, protecting precious drinking water from contamination.
Enviro Options (Pty) Ltd., Kya Sands, South Africa.
Cleaning the Air:
A U.S. nonprofit has developed an inexpensive kit that turns smog-belching two-stroke engines – the kind that power mini-vehicles throughout Asia and Africa – into cleaner-burning, fuel-efficient sources of power.
Envirofit International Ltd., Fort Collins, Colo., United States
Harnessing the Sun:
An Indian company is selling small-scale solar
power systems that not only produce electric power,
but also generate cash by enabling people to
set up their own home-based businesses.
SELCO Solar Light Private Ltd., Bangalore, India
Enhancing Nutrition:
A Canadian nonprofit is partnering with African
companies to manufacture and distribute an
electricity-free food preservation system.
Malnutrition Matters, Ottawa, Canada
Educating the World:
A prestigious U.S. university is making many of its
academic courses available on the Internet where
users can learn from them – free.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Mass., United States
Fighting Illiteracy:
College students and corporate volunteers from across
the United States have developed a solar-powered
microfilm projector that will help tens of thousands
of Africans learn to read this year.
Design That Matters Inc., Cambridge, Mass., United States
Crafting Inexpensive Vaccines:
A team of Cuban and Canadian scientists has
invented an inexpensive vaccine that could save the
lives of half a million infants each year.
Hib Vaccine Team, Havana, Cuba, and Ottawa, Canada
Helping People See:
An Oxford University professor has invented low-cost
eyeglasses that wearers can tune without the aid
of an optometrist.
Adaptive Eyecare Ltd., Oxford, England
Reducing Child Labour:
A Pakistani organization is selling ergonomically correct
weaving looms that let adults create the same
intricate rugs that children now make.
Centre for the Improvement of Working
Conditions & Environment, Lahore, Pakistan
Bridging the Digital Divide:
A Brazilian nonprofit is rolling out telecenters that
provide Internet access, telephone service,
computer training, and other technology-based
services to the poor and working class.
CEMINA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
www.radiofalamulher.com
Business
By Subhash, on August 4th, 2006
No surprise here. The churn in the newspaper business is getting more interesting. The Pioneer too is a candidate when the FDI norms ease.
Technology
By Subhash, on August 4th, 2006
Priced at Rs.38,000 car navigation systems haven’t really caught the fancy of Indian car owners.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on August 4th, 2006
There have been only disparaging comments about Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s brainchild the Lok Sabha Television. Here’s a thorough look by the Business Standard.
Business
By Subhash, on July 27th, 2006
India takes on offshoring naysayers
Nasccom’s Sunil Mehta has been trying to wipe up the dirt that was smeared on his compatriots last month after an HSBC call-centre worker was arrested for allegedly defrauding UK customers.…
ICTs
By Subhash, on July 27th, 2006
India rejects One Laptop Per Child
India has decided against getting involved in Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child scheme – which aims to provide kids in developing countries with a simple $100 machine.… but Nigeria is to go ahead with it.
Content
By Subhash, on July 27th, 2006
Netscape versus Digg
Newly relaunched Netscape.com has been getting into a bit of a slanging match with Digg – the site which gets its users to rate news stories.…
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on July 26th, 2006
“India is under attack from rogue elements within and outside the country, not only in its physical space (think Mumbai), but in cyberspace too. Extensions “.co.in†and “.gov.in†are special targets of hack-attacks, whose number, and intensity, is increasing at a worrying pace,” reads a report from Vandana Gombar in the Business Standard today. CERT-In is the team that was set up to help evade these attacks. Instead if the team is busy trying to figure out which blog needs to be banned, the rogue elements that are causing such damage to virtual property will find the going easier.
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on July 26th, 2006
The filtered coverage of Israel’s attack on Lebanon comes unstuck as people reach the Internet to get what’s really happening out there.
Videos on Web widen lens on Mideast conflict
“In a matter of weeks, YouTube has become a video Dumpster for a global audience to share first-hand reports, military strategies, propaganda videos and personal commentary about a violent conflict…
via CyberJournalist.net
Broadcast
By Subhash, on July 26th, 2006
The government will not be presenting the proposed Broadcasting Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament. The media industry’s concerns have been presented to the government by IMG and the IBF. The citiznens of India don’t seem to figure the consultative process. There’s still time.
Govt to address industry concerns on broadcast bill
Under attack from the industry for not hearing its views while drafting the broadcast regulatory bill, the government has agreed to address concerns of the media and entertainment companies before tabling the Bill in Parliament.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on July 26th, 2006
HT Media Q1 net up 212% to Rs 30.6 cr
HT Media on Friday reported a whopping 212 per cent increase in its profit after tax at Rs 30.6 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, against Rs 9.8 crore in the corresponding period previous year.
ICTs
By Subhash, on July 26th, 2006
Hearing looks at Internet name privatization plan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department will hold a Wednesday hearing on the government’s September deadline to give up control over Internet domain names, a schedule that some high-tech industry advocates say should be delayed.
Internet
By Subhash, on July 25th, 2006
74,000 .eu domains suspended
And phantom registrars sued
Over 74,000 .eu domains have been suspended and 400 registering companies sued by the company in charge of the European Union’s top-level domain.…
technorati tags:Domains
Broadcast
By Subhash, on July 21st, 2006
Mid-day Multimedia Ltd is to invest upto Rs 100 cr in its radio business. This is another media organisation that has gone to the market. The numbers, again, are small but this is a company to watch out. Something closer home: they are to start a radio channel in Chennai.
Mid-day to invest in radio biz
Broadcast
By Subhash, on July 21st, 2006
Though the market cap is not a huge figure the company is in for some good times given the fact that its political fortune is currently shining brightly, and may do so for a few years more.
Sun TV PAT jumps 70% in FY 06
Sun TV Ltd on Thursday reported a 69.65 per cent increase in profit after tax at Rs 130.23 crore in 2005-06 and has recommended a dividend of 20 per cent for the year.
technorati tags:broadcast, media, companies
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on July 20th, 2006
With a site named Indian Online Journalism and there is no rant about the blocking of the 17 websites or inaccessibility of three popular domains. Yes, strange indeed.
There is excellent activism going on already. There is no need for duplicating the effort here save to extend a hand of solidarity.
The casual manner in which three popular domains have been taken off Indian cyberspace is appalling.
Some websites and online activists have been turning this democratic medium into a hellhole. They have used this democratic space to convey hatred and incite violence. Some of the names of the websites that the government wanted blocked are instructive.
I could access exposingleft from work. The content did not seem to have anything that would compromise “national securityâ€. Of course, the language is vituperative but the Left is no stranger to abusive language, nor, for that matter, are editors unused to such language directed at them, I’m sure. There is no denying that many websites do train their efforts at inciting violence against Muslims, which is simply not acceptable.
Indians online would surely have come across well-heeled and self-appointed historians who use the democratic spirit of the Internet to attack “pseudo-secularistsâ€. Most often the attacks on intellectuals have taken the form of undemocratic harangue.
If these self-appointed saviours of India’s hoary and glorious heritage have to be shown their place this was surely not the way. The government has done terrible injustice to those who believe in informed and academic debate and can obviously take these “patriotic NRIsâ€.
It is a shame. There is the need to haul up those who indulged in this stupidity. But clearly we should call for a transparent set of guidelines to ensure that whenever a need does arise to ban a website it is not done in such an arrogant and ham-handed manner. But there is no denying that anti-democratic forces have reigned in on the Net only to ensure that reasoned debates can continue.
Technology
By Subhash, on July 20th, 2006
Fred Garland referred me to Flock. It is clearly a nex-gen browser. The convenience of bogging and Flickr makes Flock vying for the default browser status.
The Web snippet tool is useful but that’s the only tool available in the blogging window. You’ll have to make do with the default theme of the browser. It is the same with extension. But for a beta, straight out, Flock already offers morE features such as managing blogs, pictures, RSS feeds, better than exisiting ones.
Flock I felt is faster than Mozilla. I haven’t checked out all the plugins. That will be an important consideration.
Let me explore some more and post my views here….
Business
By Subhash, on July 18th, 2006
The number of Internet Service Provider (ISPs) in the country has decreased from 189 in March 2004 to 153 in March 2006 owing to the steady capturing of market share of ISPs by telecom companies.
VoIP, according to Himanshu Dhomse, is one technology that’s helping ISPs fight back.
The report by Dhomse in the Business Standard says “the VoIP market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 278 per cent worldwide.”
More headlines from BS:
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on July 18th, 2006
Rupesh Janve & Khomba Singh report in the Business Standard today that the DoT has asked Hutch, Airtel, Reliance, Idea, Tata and MTNL in Mumbai and Delhi and BSNL in three circles to to discontinue all connections issued without proper verification. According to the report “it raises the prospects of millions of mobile connections being disconnected by the end of the month”.
But, of course, as BSNL Director, Finance, S.D. Saxena says, “The notice may have an effect on new connections as there is a long waiting list of subscribers, but security cannot be left aside.”
Business
By Subhash, on July 18th, 2006
Vijayanand Printers (VPL), with Vijay Times with 10 editions and two Kannada newspapers Vijay Karnataka and Usha Kiran, are now firmly in the Bennett, Coleman & Co (BCCL) stable. BCCL with the acquisition enters the fast-growing regional media market.
Apparently “readers, advertisers, employees and business associates have all played a vital role in building these brands.” One hopes that it means pink slips and not going to be passed around.
Broadband
By Subhash, on July 18th, 2006
Now that’s an offer one can’t refuse! MTNL is offering unlimited surfing for its broadband subscribers and for free. The offer is: no monthly rental, subscribers pay only for the data downloaded.
MTNL plans to provide cable TV channels to its broadband subscribers — an issue that might raise the hackles of some in the broadcasting industry. But surely not a issue that has arisen in the “net neutrality” debate in the U.S.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on July 15th, 2006
Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi’s diatribe against media owners is not without merit. If the proposed Broadcasting Bill facilitates a discussion on the way the media function, we need to welcome it.
While the ratcheting up on the supposed attack on freedom of the press in the Bill is good, even it is unfounded. It will certainly ensure that the Dasmunsi’s will quickly make an about turn. But let’s spare ourselves the vitriol of the likes of L.K. Advani.
The most important aspect of the proposed Bill, however, is its pronouncements of cross-media ownership.
According to reports the Bill proposes to cap cross media ownership at 20 per cent. It also proposes to restructure the shareholding pattern in media companies. It would mean that a broadcaster cannot have more than 20 per cent stake in a separate broadcasting network, a cable network or DTH or a radio network.
Quite like for FM radio operators, the Bill apparently proposes to ensure that television networks too will not be allowed to own more than 15 per cent of the total number of channels or 30 channels of the 200 channels registered in India.
According to reports, the Bill proposes limits the number of subscribers for cable and service providers to a maximum of 15 per cent.
Now, if this is the main issue. Then is it adequate? Don’t consumers get to have a say in the whole debate? Why shouldn’t the whole debate be opened up to include every segment of society? Would Dasmusi like that? Would the media owners like that?
Telecom
By Subhash, on July 14th, 2006
The Department of Telecom (DoT), because of political compulsions or for having faculties than compradors, has disagreed with the suggestion of the Ratan Tata-headed Investment Commission for “permitting 74 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector through the automatic route“.
If one has to stomach the fact that 49 per cent FDI exist, of course, with conditionalities, the demand to raise the limit to 74 per cent is clearly not acceptable “in the larger interest of national security”.
On the question of local loop unbundling too the department seems to have sided with BSNL, which is encouraging. DoT according to a Business Standard report said:”Local loop unbundling acts as a disincentive for incumbents for large scale deployments of broadband. Moreover, this would also cause serious commercial and revenue implications for the incumbent.”
Broadband
By Subhash, on July 14th, 2006
At 1.5 million subscribers this year up from a few thousands last year, broadband has seen a 600 per cent growth rate, according the Internet Service Providers Association of India. Dial-up users have also grown by 24 per cent to touch 6.9 million users. Net telephony is an attraction that is bound to see rapid growth. A word of caution. Numbers are being quote from various quarters. Maybe one should take them with a pinch of salt.
India’s international bandwidth providers are to raise their capacity by 95 per cent. Here’s a report with more details. Gear up folks….
Journalism
By Subhash, on July 13th, 2006
What on earth is innovation journalism? Indeed, there is a website dedicated to it. The “about” section of the site answer the question.
Innovation Journalism covers technical, business, legal and political aspects of innovations and innovation systems. Good Innovation Journalism contributes to society by enhancing the public debate through better common knowledge and understanding of innovation issues.
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on July 13th, 2006
A disturbing part about the Mumbai terrorist attack was the “collapse” or jamming of the cellphone service. According to the Business Standard: “Net becomes the saviour as cell phones go blank“. The report says: “The clogging of telephone networks — both mobile and landline — during the hours of crisis in Mumbai led to an increased usage of Internet.”
Content
By Subhash, on July 13th, 2006
According to a report in the Business Standard: “Yahoo and MSN Instant Messaging (IM) users from India and 14 other countries will be able to invite and chat with each other beginning today.” Good news!
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on July 5th, 2006
A Business Line story leads thus: “The global entertainment and media (E&M) industry is expected to grow at a 6.6 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) to $1.8 trillion in 2010, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006 – 2010, released last week.” The expansion of broadband households is to spur the growth of the sector.
The report says that the Internet “will remain the fastest-growing advertising medium.
Some more good news, eh?
Internet
By Subhash, on July 5th, 2006
This is something very inspiring. K.T. Jagannathan’s report in the business page of The Hindu say that Cognizant Technology Solutions has formed a digital media centre of excellence. High sounding, but it means the company will focus on developing tools for the new media market.
I guess you can’t expect these to be available in the FLOSS domain but one needs to celebrate it for the sheer fact that an Indian company of Cognizant’s stature is focussing on media tools. Something good will come out of it.
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on July 5th, 2006
Ever since I read the story of Prabhat Khabar by Harivansh in Practising Journalism: Values, Constraints, Implications, I’ve been keen to follow the Jharkhand paper’s success story.
But visiting its website was a disappointment. You are welcomed by an atrocious homepage – a flash page, “please enter”. Today exchange4media reports that Prabhat Khabar has launched an e-paper.
By the way, this site too boasts of the ubiquitous photogallery, with, you guess right, “beauty queens”. Pageviews? You can be different folks….
Business
By Subhash, on July 4th, 2006
Thomas K Thomas reports in the The Hindu BusinessLine today that Net Telephony usage outpaced the international long distance market.
Taking a swipe at BSNL or the public sector is standard practice these days. So the late arrival of Net Telephony is, obviously, because of the highly regulated licence regime. And the good thing about Net Telephony reaching a billion minutes, even bigger than the outgoing international long distance telephony market, which is pegged at around 600 million minutes a quarter, is that users don’t pay ADC – Access Deficit Charges – to hell with disconnected India!
Broadband
By Subhash, on June 30th, 2006
BSNL and MTNL, the two public sector behemoths in India, will be rolling out 3G services by the end of the year. Unfortunately, the two have missed the World Cup bus but one hopes that the two will be available strike good deals to bring “good content” to this new platform, Mobile TV.
The World Soccer Championship is the first major event to be telecast for mobile TV.
Business
By Subhash, on June 30th, 2006
According to hardware industry association MAIT, PC sales in India crossed the 5-million mark. What’s significant about the report is the growth of PC sales in smaller towns. The growth rate is 35%.
According to the news report in ET:”Aggressive pricing from brand players cannibalised the market for assembled personal computers.”
The desktop PCs had registered Rs.8,884 crores in revenues in 2005-06.
Broadband
By Subhash, on June 29th, 2006
A Reuters report by Jeremy Pelofsky says: “The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved sweeping communications reform legislation on Wednesday that would make it easier for telephone companies like AT&T Inc. to offer subscription television to consumers.But the panel narrowly rejected attempts by some lawmakers to strengthen safeguards on Internet service, which had pitted high-speed Internet, or broadband, providers such as AT&T against Internet companies like Google Inc.”
The full story is at: here
Internet
By Subhash, on June 29th, 2006
Parks Associates, a U.S. market research organisation has researched on digital living trends in 13 markets in Asia, Europe and North America. India finds mention but only at the the very end. Here’s a BBC report. Nevertheless it should please many.
Journalism
By Subhash, on June 23rd, 2006
The scenario in the Indian media has been quite grim in the last few years. The country has only a few prominent media houses that not only influence the news but are also monitored by either big corporate houses or powerful political parties. Read More…..
read more | digg story
Internet
By Subhash, on June 23rd, 2006
A glossary of terms related to the Digital media industry.
Click on a term to read its desription.
read more | digg story
ICTs
By Subhash, on June 21st, 2006
John Siracusa argues why the Tiger x86 kernel is an evolutionary dead-end, and why Leopard may see an all new kernel when it is released later this year. Could it be L4?
read more | digg story
Blogging & RSS
By Subhash, on May 23rd, 2006
Here’s what Susan Crawford thinks about Net Neutrality. She’s a professor at the Cardozo School of Law and on the Board of Directors of ICANN.
Now we’ve got http://www.savetheinternet.com/. Follow the blog for the lastest on the issue.
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on May 3rd, 2006
From Mrs. Suha Arafat
Email; suhaarafat200@yahoo.com
Dear Intending partner,
This mail may not be surprising to you if you have been following current events in the international media with reference to the Middle East and Palestine in particular I am Mrs. SUHA ARAFAT, the wife of YASSER ARAFAT, the Palestinian Leader who died recently in Paris. Since his death and even prior to the announcement, I have been thrown into a state of antagonism, confusion, humiliation, frustration and hopelessness by the present leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the new Prime Minister. I have even been subjected to physical and psychological torture. As a widow that is so traumatized,
I have lost confidence with everybody in the country at the moment.You must have heard over the media reports and the Internet on the discovery of some fund in my husband secret bank account and companies and the allegations of some huge sums of money deposited by my husband in my name of which I have refuses to disclose or give up to the corrupt Palestine Government. In fact the total sum allegedly discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of about $6.5 Billion Dollars. And they are not relenting on their effort to make me poor for life. As you know, the Moslem community has no regards for woman, hence my desire for a foreign assistance. You can visit the broadcast below for better understanding of what I am talking about; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3479937.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3995769.stm
I have deposited the sum of 20 million dollars with a private security firm abroad whose name is withheld for now until we open communication. I shall be grateful if you could receive this fund into your bank account for safe keeping and any Investment opportunity. This arrangement is known to you and my personal Attorney. He might be dealing with you directly for security reasons as the case may be. In view of the above, if you are willing to assist for our mutual benefits, we will have to negotiate on your Percentage share of the $20,000,000 that will be kept in your position for a while and invested in your name for my trust pending when my Daughter, Zahra, will come off age and take full responsibility of her Family Estate/inheritance.
Please note that this is a golden opportunity that comes once in life time and more so, if you are honest, I am going to entrust more funds in your care as this is one of the legacy we keep for our children.In case you don’t accept please do not let me out to the security and international media as I am giving you this information in total trust and confidence I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith. Please expedite action and all response to my Email address below. NB / Please reply to:
suhaarafat200@yahoo.com
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Suha Arafat
Broadcast
By Subhash, on April 29th, 2006
The notification of 24 sports events that private broadcaster have rights for will henceforth be shared with Doordarshan.
But for broadcasting these “events of national importanceâ€, Doordarshan is expected to “pass on 75 per cent of the revenue”. The issue has been settled with the consultation with the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, Prasar Bharati, sports channels and broadcast rights holders. But that does not rule out further conflict arising out of this move.
One thing is certain, the large non-urban viewers will benefit from this. Even people in Chennai, which is currently the only city with CAS, will be relieved.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on April 28th, 2006
The bizarre trajectory of India’s media policy continues. This time it seems more on the sensible side of the debate. Apparently, Private FMs may not be able to join DTH platforms. Depending on which side of the fence one wants to belong to, this rule might be seen as progressive or regressive. I go with the progressive point of view.
It is important to ensure that broadcasters do not get a license to stomp over the country. Especially as far as private players concerned. But the problem is that the public broadcaster is behaving like a poor clone of its private commercial competitors.
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on April 28th, 2006
SMS cutting into voice usage, says a study from IDC India. In fact, no surprises here. But the fact that “user[s] sends 6 messages (SMS) in a day and receive 8,” on average, owing essentially to intrusive marketing, is evident. TRAI has to implement punitive measures to curb this annoying strategy by the hordes of marketers. The chief culprits seem to be banks peddling either credit cards or loans.
Uncategorized
By Subhash, on April 25th, 2006
From Webmaster Toolkit:
Results for: http://www.indianonlinejournalism.org, searching for online journalism
Engine Position
Altavista Not in first 50 results
Excite No results were found
Google No results were found
Yahoo No results were found
HotBot Request timed out
MSN No results were found
WiseNut 19
All the Web Not in first 50 results
Teoma No results were found
Content
By Subhash, on April 25th, 2006
Counts Media sounds like a company that’s doing some fabulous stuff. It claims that it’s expertise lies in “innovative theatrical experiences, interactive urban art, and the application of emerging technology to entertainment”. I’m sure whatever product comes out the crucible will be of relevance to the world of online journalism as well.
Business
By Subhash, on April 25th, 2006
A company, Email Data Source Inc’s business it to “analyze, organize, and archive thousands of daily email marketing messages” and, of course, make money by doing that.
The website claims that Email Data Source’s “catalogue currently contains over 900,000 email marketing messages on 18,000 brands, sent by 14,000 companies, through more than 6,000 mailing lists”.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on April 25th, 2006
On day one itself Sun TV has become the “second most valuable company in the media space”. The market capitalisation of the company stood at Rs 10,099 crores.
Business Standard has a report.
Journalism
By Subhash, on April 12th, 2006
 My colleague Praveen Swami figures prominently in the list of awardees of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards.
The full list
Internet
By Subhash, on April 10th, 2006
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on February 12th, 2006
A headline in The Progressive reads thus: VA Nurse Investigated for “Sedition†for Criticizing Bush. Hallelujah!
It surprised me to hear a journalist-friend say that he wasn’t particularly concerned about what Yahoo!, Google or AOL do with the personal information they have of their customers as long as he gets to use what’s on offer by these behemoths. I wonder what he’d have to say to the nurse?
Interestingly the story hasn’t made it big in the mainstream media in the United States. There is a discussion on at Journet, for those interested in the fate of liberty.
Kevin Bankston, Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation lists the following links in the IP list:
For more on Google’s data collection:
http://news.com.com/FAQ+When+Google+is+not+your+friend/2100-1025_3-6034666.html?tag=nl
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/21/google_subpoena_roils_the_web
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/01/20/EDGEPGPHA61.DTL
http://news.com.com/%20Bill+would+force+Web+sites+to+delete+personal+info/2100-1028_3-6036951.html
Content
By Subhash, on January 25th, 2006
The January 24 newsletter by Frank Barnako has two noteworthy titbits on online journalism: LATimes is to move members of its online team “to take seats in regular newsroom departmentsâ€. Now that is nothing novel, and, indeed, such moves can only make sense with a rethink about the entire news process, which obviously means that newsroom management should not be about merely moving people around. There are more issues involved here; the news cycle will be completely different for one member of the desk. How’s that to be factored in? How’s going to take the call on which stories goes online and which does not? And more such issues that will be difficult to negotiate.
The other news Barnako reports about is that Wisconsin State Journal will allow reader to choose “as many as five stories†to appear in the next days edition. This is the first time I’ve heard of this sort of collaboration between a newspaper and its readers. A experiment worth watching.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on January 5th, 2006
According to the new guidelines for downlinking for foreign television channels announced by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry:
- The companies operating in India must be registered under the Indian Companies Act. For what that amounts to, visit the FAQ by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry: http://siadipp.nic.in/publicat/most_frq.htm
- The company must have an presence in the country irrespective of its equity structure, foreign ownership or management control
- The must have a minimum net worth of Rs.1.5 crore for a channel and 1 crore of each additional channel
- Channels are to be granted five-years registration at a fee of Rs.5 lakh for each channel and an annual fee of Rs.1 lakh.
The rub is in sharing content of cricket and other events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on January 5th, 2006
If public interest is the basis of media reform then the professional and economic independence of media practitioners is a yardstick to measure the scenario.
From the multi-edition big newspapers to the small town tabloids a de-unionised workforce is the norm. The implications are manifold: contract labour, job insecurity, harassment of various kinds and so on, are common. There are obvious difference in the manner in which journalist will react to any attempt at unionising. For instance, organising personnel in the hyper-commercialised broadcast sector could be almost impossible.
But as India hurtles towards corporatisation of media, it because important for progressive elements to focus on the inadequacies in the system not necessarily in terms of media policy alone but also on the organic aspects of media entities.
Read Free Press’ views on Labour Rights.
Business
By Subhash, on December 20th, 2005
Indiantimes’ latest “strategic alliance” is with Legalpundits.com. Another ace indeed.
Business
By Subhash, on December 20th, 2005
Indiatimes takes the cake and eats it too, followed, of course, by the old warhorse rediff, and, finally siffy. But when it comes to tipping the hat for e-commerce in India, the Indian Railways deserves it the most.
The Business Standard supplement, the strategist reports on the status of e-commerce. The article is by Prasad Sangameshwaran and Rituparna Chatterjee on an ACNielsen survey of the e-commerce scene.
It is satisfying to note that “books followed airline reservations closely as the most popular online purchase, with 35 per cent of online Indians buying them over the internet,” according to Muthukumaran of ACNielsen ORG-MARG. He adds that “nearly 24 per cent Indian have purchased apparel, music and electronic entertainment [movies, DVDs and games]“. So the e-commerce is coming of age in India.
Indiatimes — not surprisingly — is the most aggressive in the segment.
Some of the findings:
- Average number of online purchases by online Indians is 5.2 in the past month
- Only 35 per cent about books online
- More 36 per cent bought air tickets
- 22 per cent bought videos
- 21 per cent bought clothes
- 68 per cent made purchases by credit cards
- Cash on delivery at 29 per cent was the next popular mode of payment
- 19 per cent use the Bank transfer method
- Of the Rs.1,180 crores Indian online shopping spending the railway ticket booking accounted for 47 per cent
- Online spenders are in the age group of 26 to 35
Media companies will base their strategies on these trends. The foot soldiers will have to do their bidding.
Business
By Subhash, on December 17th, 2005
The times are such. The news that “Internet advertising will account for 10 percent of total U.S. ad dollars” is something to celebrate about, although we’d have to wait for 2010 for that to happen.
It looks even better graphically. But if you insist on the full story, here goes: http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/advertising/article.php/3569616
Ownership
By Subhash, on December 5th, 2005
Subhash Chandra, who started off as a vegetable oil manufacturer, now lords over the Zee-Essel group.
The group is an “indigenous” media conglomerate with its hand in practically every media pie. But Zee did have close business links with Rupert Murdoch’s Star group.
Zee’s market capitalisation this year stands at Rs.57,297 million up from Rs.55,358 million last year.
Zee’s latest foray is into newspaper in collaboration with the Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar, is to be watched with interest as it takes on the mighty Times of India on home ground. The newspaper is called Daily News & Analysis, which is brought out in Mumbai.
Zee has interests in film production and distribution, television, DTH, cable distribution, satellite broadcasting, music, animation and so on.
Zee is expected to get into the FM radio segment in the second phase of expansion.
ICTs
By Subhash, on November 29th, 2005
Try the eReadiness country data. Here’s what I got for Brazil, China and India:
India has to do a lot more to improve its teledensity, to put it mildly. Although the diagram is drawn from figures for 1999, the figure for 2003 is looks a lot better for India; it is 5 lines per 100 people.
Ethics & Legal issues
By Subhash, on November 28th, 2005
Google’s being demonished for sometime now. This is, of course, a terrible way to start writing. Stating the obvious is simple not good. But when Spiegel Online writes an editorial piece on Google we need to take note, that’s all.
I would’ve like to give the title: I told you so. But the earlier post has the same title.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on November 26th, 2005
Sorry, I was a bit slow on the uptake. Here I refer to a report that appeared in NYT on November 16.
Heard of Kenneth Y. Tomlinson? He was the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, United States. He “was” because he had to step down owing to the fact that he “repeatedly broke federal law and the organisation’s own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias”. Nothing original really. Quiet common in Bush’s U.S. But the fact that he was dismissed is worth taking note of.
Acccording to The New York Times, Tomlinson termed the dismissal as “malicious and irresponsible”.
The moral of the story is public broadcasting has to face malicious attempts to undermine it’s mandate. There should be systems and procedures in place to ensure that the Tomlinsons are shown the door.
Business
By Subhash, on November 24th, 2005
Have you tried Google Base? Gary Price has a post on it at Search Engine Watch.
Broadband
By Subhash, on November 24th, 2005
India obviously does not figure in the top 15 countries in broadband subscribers.
We like to compare ourselves with China — a fixation as strong as the one we have with Pakistan. China is ranked second with 16.5 per cent or 35.9 million subscribers, according to a report by Computer Industry Almanac.
Broadcast
By Subhash, on November 24th, 2005
When there is talk of restructuring a public institution by the government one is entitled to be apprehensive. It could be the beginning of privatisation initiatives.
There is a news report that the government is planning on restructuring Doordarshan.
The bottomline: “[For] expenditure of around Rs. 2,000 crore, Prasar Bharati just manages revenues of around Rs. 800 crore.” Now that’s something you’d call a bad deal. In fact, any public expenditure is a bad deal. Everything is decided by the balance sheet in liberalised India.
So there some hints on the direction to be taken:
Prasar Bharati occupies lucrative government real estate across the country, which will be transferred to it, and that could be used to borrow money from banks and other institutions for the planned restructuring.
Freedom of Information
By Subhash, on November 14th, 2005
The Bill of Media Rights ostensibly concerns the media situation in the United States.
But please do read the Bill. We in India too are in need of a “free and vibrant mediaâ€. While for media owners the rising newspaper circulation figures are indicative of markets unexplored, it cannot be the view that the readers, or for that matter, the worker bees, the journalists, share. “[C]orporate consolidation†is happening here as well. Indeed, family businesses are turning to the markets and probably waiting for the flooded-gates of foreign direct investments to flow into the newspaper sector. Television, and lately the FM radio segment, is being dominated by private capital.
Doordarshan and All India Radio have valiant fought to do well commercially, despite intense pressures from private interests and governmental interference. That’s the rosy picture of course. The other side of the struggle has involved significant dilution of the public broadcaster’s constitutional mandate. Nevertheless, increasing autonomy and staying power in a vast country like India will certainly ensure that public broadcasting in India will not die without a good fight. Why, it will never die.
But the disconnect of privately held media from the concerns of the citizens of this country requires that people have to be vigilant, and there is a fight before long to establish independent, citizen media in India.
We as a nation are proud of our multi-cultural heritage. The elite “consensus†permitted a certain element of “diversity†of views. But things have changed in the recent past. We are now wedded to a neo-liberal policy. There-is-no-alternative is the only view that can be heard in the media – the basis of the middle-class’ sellout, to some extent. The disconnected with the majority is complete. Tokenism is as good as we can get.
These might sound like controversial and unsubstantiated views. But that’s something those who own the media can argue against. IOJ offers this space for them to refute these views.
Before it is too late, “policymakers must ensure that the Constitutional rights of present and future generations to freely express themselves in the media†must be protected. For that we need a “coalition of consumer, public interest, media reform, organized labor and other groups representing†the majority to get for ourselves a Bill of Media Rights. What would that involve? Let’s borrow from the aforementioned Bill.
The Indian public has a right to:
- Journalism that fully informs the public, is independent of the government and acts as its watchdog, and protects journalists who dissent from their employers.
- Newspapers, television and radio stations, cable and satellite systems, and broadcast and cable networks operated by multiple, diverse, and independent owners that compete vigorously and employ a diverse workforce.
- Radio and television programming produced by independent creators that is original, challenging, controversial, and diverse.
- Programming, stories, and speech produced by communities and citizens.
- Internet service provided by multiple, independent providers who compete vigorously and offer access to the entire Internet over a broadband connection, with freedom to attach within the home any legal device to the net connection and run any legal application.
- Public broadcasting insulated from political and commercial interests that is well-funded and especially serves communities underserved by privately-owned broadcasters.
- Regulatory policies emphasizing media education and citizen empowerment, not government censorship, as the best ways to avoid unwanted content.
Media That Use The Public’s Airwaves To Serve The Public Interest
The Indian public has a right to:
- Electoral and civic, children’s, educational, independently produced, local and community programming, as well as programming that serves Americans with disabilities and underserved communities.
- Media that reflect the presence and voices of people Dalits, women, labour, immigrants, people with disabilities, and other communities often underrepresented.
- Maximum access and opportunity to use the public airwaves and spectrum.
- Meaningful participation in government media policy, including disclosure of the ways broadcasters comply with their public interest obligations, ascertain their community’s needs, and create programming to serve those needs.
Media That Reflect And Respond To Their Local Communities
The Indian public has a right to:
- Television and radio stations that are locally owned and operated, reflective of and responsible to the diverse communities they serve, and able to respond quickly to local emergencies.
- Well-funded local public access channels and community radio, including low-power FM radio stations.
- Universal, affordable Internet access for news, education, and government information, so that all citizens can better participate in our democracy and culture.
- Frequent, rigorous license and franchise renewal processes for broadcasters and cable operators that meaningfully include the public.
CONCLUSION
These principles are not meant to be all-inclusive. Rather, they illustrate an Indian media structure that is the Indian public’s present and future right under the Constitution of the India.
‘Do we need a Bill of Media Rights?’,
‘Do to citizens of India deserve a Bill of Media Rights. If so there is a battle ahead to, first to stem the tide of commercialism and then to wrest the media from the elite.
Uncategorized
By Subhash, on November 11th, 2005
Without a doubt K.R. Narayanan was the best President of India. It is a relief that this great man did not suffer much at the end. His illness was brief.
He was proof that in post-1960s India, even in the centre of the political space, people of high moral standing can survive, and, indeed, succeed – on their on terms.
The fact that Narayanan started his working life as a journalist is a matter of pride for us. Journalism’s loss was no loss at all considereing the fact that he served the country so well. India is better off that way.
Read a tribute by Vidya Subrahmaniam in The Hindu: K.R. Narayanan — President who defied stereotype
The Times of India has a site to Light a candle for the great Indian.
Online Journalism
By Subhash, on October 6th, 2005
IOJ has existed for more than five years now. It started of as a forum and has acquired a website as well.
Over the next few months. I will try and showcase some good online journalism happening in India.
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